Dear Kid,
Be prepared to smile. Today’s story is the feel good story of the year. Or at least of the day.
On January 24, a preemie was born (6 weeks early). Severely underweight, she weighed only 29 pounds. I speak, of course, of Fiona, the baby hippo born at the Cincinnati Zoo less than a month ago.
Most preemies face challenges in the first few weeks of life and the zoo staff has been taking very good care of Fiona (especially when she turns into a princess during the day).
She was doing fine and gaining weight (she’s still has a few brownies to go until she hits 50 pounds). Until she became dehydrated recently. So the medical staff at the zoo gave her an IV. But babies, especially preemies, have teeny tiny little bitty (even small) veins which couldn’t hold the IVs. They tried multiple times, but couldn’t get a vein to cooperate long enough to give Fiona enough fluid.
Fortunately, right next door to the Zoo is Children’s Hospital (you’ve been there) and the NICU pros know all about teeny tiny little bitty (even small) veins. So they raced over to the zoo to help.
It took five bags of fluid, but Fiona is doing much, much better. (Yay!)
Stay tuned for baby hippo updates.
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